Accatone, The Anger of Pasolini

Film/Video

Best known in the US as one of the great Italian postwar filmmakers, Pier Paolo Pasolini was also an influential, outspoken, and openly gay poet, novelist, critic, journalist, playwright, and painter. He held seemingly conflicting philosophies as both a Marxist and a Catholic, and was a staunch leftist who once spoke out against left-wing student protests in favor of the working-class police. His filmography represents perhaps the most subversive body of work ever put to film, still provoking outrage and charges of blasphemy in some quarters. However controversial, the themes he explores achieve a measure of timelessness and universality as many of his films are set in the distant past. Most importantly, his films often portray the lives of those existing on the fringes of society, in roles often played by nonprofessional actors. The Wex is thrilled to present this nearly complete retrospective with many titles screening in newly restored 35mm prints.

Thu, Jan 23, 2014 7 PM

Depicting a milieu typical of his novels, Pasolini’s first film as a director, Accattone, follows a pimp struggling to survive while searching for a new girl after his main prostitute is sent to prison. (110 mins., 35mm) With narration in verse written by Pasolini, The Anger of Pasolini is an ideological essay on then-recent events compiled from newsreels and documentaries. As Pasolini himself noted, the film “stands as an act of protest against the unreality of the bourgeois world and its consequent irresponsibility in historical terms.” (81 mins., 35mm)